McGowan: FFA Cup is ours and we want to keep it

Adelaide United defender, Dylan McGowan, says although the Reds have never faced Darwin Olympic, he and his teammates are anticipating a difficult task in the opening round of their Westfield FFA Cup title defence.

With Adelaide United’s Westfield FFA Cup title defence commencing on Wednesday evening against Darwin Olympic, Dylan McGowan says the match will surely be challenging, but he and his teammates are up for the task and are preparing as thoroughly as possible.

“The boys are looking forward to it,” McGowan said. “Pre-season’s been quite intense so far and we’ve had a couple of big high-profile games but this is the first real one and we’re really looking forward to it.

“We played a Darwin (team) when we went up there last (season), so we sort of know what we’re up against and we’ll certainly not be taking any of them for granted.

“We don’t know a whole heap (about Darwin Olympic) to be honest. But we’ve done our homework and so have the coaches and we’ll watch the videos once we’re up there.”

McGowan continued by stating that United will do everything they can to overcome Olympic in the Northern Territory, as the club looks to retain the FFA Cup trophy that they deservedly earned last season.

“These State League sides have nothing to lose and everything to gain so they’ll come out guns blazing and so they should.

“We’ve got to prove that we’re the better team on the night and the only way to do that is through hard work and playing the better football.

“We’ve taken heaps of confidence from winning the FFA Cup last year, but we didn’t play any state league teams last season.

“We played all A-League teams the whole way through, so we were prepared and we knew what we were coming up against.

“This is a bit of a new experience for us, but we’ll be looking to defend our cup.

“No one else has won it and it’s ours. We want to keep it that way.”

Adelaide United travel to Darwin where they will begin their Westfield FFA Cup title defence against Darwin Olympic on Wednesday 5 August 2015. Kick-off at 8:00pm ACST.